In his government office, Prime Minister Thorbjörn is visited by the Soviet Ambassador Aleksandra Kosygina. It turns out that their plan to install a radio mast on the submarine has been dashed by the Commander-in-Chief, who happens to have come up with the same plan. In the Kremlin, an increasingly decrepit Leonid Brezhnev is having a hard time dealing with the crisis and gets an unexpected helping hand from the Fourth Chairman of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Andropov has ulterior motives in aiding Brezhnev. Meanwhile, Ambassador Kosygina makes a trip out to the submarine accompanied by one of the crew, Commander Anders Karlsson, where she realises she is confronted with the mad Captain. She soon discovers that there is another way to solve the problem.